Simultaneous Measurement of Specific Heat Capacity, Thermal Conductivity, and Thermal Diffusivity by Thermal Radiation Calorimetry

Thermal radiation calorimetry has been applied to measure the thermal diffusivity of a solid specimen, along with simultaneous measurements of specific heat capacity and thermal conductivity. In this calorimeter, a disk-shaped solid specimen whose surfaces are blackened is heated and cooled slowly on one face by irradiation in a vacuum chamber. A quasi-steady-state approximation in which a linear temperature gradient within the specimen was assumed is considered in the analysis. The validity of this approximation was confirmed by the results of computer simulation based on the control-volume method. Measurements of Pyroceram 9606 and Pyrex 7740 by use of thermocouples in the temperature range between 250 and 400°C gave values consistent with those obtained by previous authors, within experimental error, for all three thermophysical properties.